Turns out some people just really, really didn't want brown-skinned characters from the book to have brown skin on screen.

Of course, this is the internet, and one thing about the internet is that at times it can really show off our societal demons in garish detail. A small minority of angry bigots can make a lot of noise and fury even if they don't represent the majority of viewers.

(I, for instance, was much more bothered by how nice everyone's hair looked than I was by the color of anyone's skin...I mean, c'mon, your hair is going to look like crap in the arena. And I always pictured District 12 inhabitants as much grimier. Oh well. Details.)

Anyways, the lesson for me in all of this is just how important free speech is even when that speech is hateful. In some places, anti-Semitic commentary is grounds for arrest and imprisonment or at least a fine and censure. But here we let our bigots speak freely. This is a good thing.

Racist comments made on Facebook and Twitter quickly become public record. Aggregations of these comments, like the Jezebel piece, expose people for what they are.

Sure, many hide under the cloak of anonymity, but many others cannot or choose not to. And as the internet becomes more civilized and its denizens more accountable, this sort of thing carries more and more weight. Enter shame culture, at least a little, and all that entails.

In the end, we'll likely never rid ourselves of racism and bigotry. But we'll continue to water it down. Rather than drive it underground, let's keep this stuff out in the great wide open, exposed. Sunlight, so the saying goes, is the best disinfectant.